When trying to slim down, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of diets out there. From the cabbage diet, to keto there seems to be a never ending list! But which one works?
To put it short, they all work as long as they put you in a calorie deficit.
What is a calorie deficit?
A calorie deficit is a term used to describe a diet which requires you to eat fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight. It is the only way to lose weight; no diet will work unless you are in that state.
You can essentially eat whatever you like as long as you are in a calorie deficit. If somebody needed 2500 calories to maintain their weight, and ate 2000 calories worth of chocolate every day for a month they would lose weight (don’t do this), if they ate 3000 calories worth of kale every day for a month, they would gain weight, it’s that simple.
So what is the best diet for me?
Now, I’m sure you wanting to know what the best diet is to lose weight. The truth is, the best diet is something that you find sustainable so you can stick with it long term. Ideally you want to be eating 80% wholesome foods, and 20% foods you actually enjoy which may or may not be considered “healthy”. This approach allows you to enjoy socialising, desert, and living a normal life – it doesn’t restrict you to only eating a grape fruit.
Now, as mentioned the key to losing weight is eating at a calorie deficit. To workout how many calories you need to eat to lose weight requires some maths, the method for this is:
Step 1 – Find out your BMR
BMR stands for Basel Metabolic Rate, this is how many calories your body needs to maintain its current weight, when doing absolutely no activity. You can find this out by following this equation:
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )
Step 2 – Determine your total daily calorie needs
Once you have figured out your BMR, you then need to determine how many calories you need to consume to maintain your current weight when doing your day to day activity. To do this, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor below:
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Maintenance calories = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Maintenance calories = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Maintenance calories = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Maintenance calories = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Maintenance calories = BMR x 1.9
Step 3 – Working out your calorie intake for lose weight
Once you have the number of calories needed to maintain your weight, you then need to reduce that number. Start anywhere from 200-500 calories, if weight loss stalls, you can either reduce your calorie intake by 100 or look at ways to increase your activity levels.
Great, now I know how many calories I need to lose weight! But how do I track it?
There are absolutely tons of apps which allow you to track your food, so it couldn’t be easier! At PT2Home, we recommend My Fitness Pal to our clients. It is simple to use, and has a huge database of foods already added to it so you can usually find what you are looking for, and if you can’t, you can add it yourself.
Some questions you may have:
- Wait, so I can really lose weight and eat pizza? – Yes
- And desert? – Yes
- I don’t want to do all that math, is there an easier way of working it out? – Yes, use this calculator
- Is My Fitness Pal free? – Yes it is
- How do I track if I eat out a lot? – We've made an article for that too!
